Ok, I have what I think is a great wired setup in my home, all works a treat, however, I am converting a lock-up garage next to my pool, into a play area to hang out in summer (yes I have permission to do so from council). This is about 20-25M distance from my last wired point, and goes through a timber wall (not sure if insulated) and a brick wall.
I was going to get a cable laid, but due to concrete between house and garage I have been quoted $1200 - $1800, for an install that is probably only $50 - $100 worth of cable, and 2 wall plates (so under $200).
I tried my neighbours EOP devices, but the power must be on different lines or something as we could not get them to work.
My idea is to put some sort of wireless router (802.11n [802.11ac is too expensive]) at the back end of the house, and then maybe another router in the garage to pick up the signal and use a cable from that 2nd router (or whatever) to the WDTV Live. I know the WDTV Live has a wireless receiver, but I took it out to the garage, and tried to see if I can hook up to my network, but it could not even see it (probably 35-40m from the ISP wireless router which is at the front end of the house).
I know very little about wireless atm as I have not had the need to use it, so what I need is a sure fire system that will work. I do not want drop outs. I do have blu-ray (MKV files) to play from the NAS to the WDTV Live device, so they are anywhere from 8GB to 28GB, but most movies are probably less than 4GB. Of course I want to view them in 1080P.
Anyone have a similar setup that works?
My only alternative is to get a little HDD for the garage, but I am too lazy to put new stuff on it all the time, especially in summer when all I want to do when I am home is relax.
What you want to do can be done, but how successful it can be remains to be seen. I have similar setup, but not quite. The distance is less than yours, I imagine…
OK, I have Asus RT-N66U that is known for it’s great wireless range. (You did not mention if you also have wireless besides wired, but it doesn’t matter.)  My router is also in a walk-in closet and connected to a Cat5 box, so the whole house is wired. The only thing we need wireless for is printers and mobile devices; iPads/iPhones. We also like to use the 5G band for the mobile devices we stream on.Â
The wireless router’s closet location sometimes presents a problem, so I set up a WD device called the My Net WiFi Range Extender near the middle of the house. The Range Extender (RE) can do a couple of things with a wireless signal; 1) it can pick up the wireless signal from the router then rebroadcast it for greater distance, or 2) it can be connected to a network switch connected to the router and the RE can be setup as a wireless AP (access point) that broadcasts its own signal with it’s own SSID. This is how I have mine setup. It is centrally located upstairs near the open stairs and can shower the whole house with an unblocked wireless signal. We just set our mobile devices to connect to the Range Extender and not the router wireless signal. Works great all around the house.
So, you could put a network switch at your location closest to the garage and connect a RE to it. Your issues then is the distance and wireless streaming in general. You likely would need a second RE to pick up the signal from the first and rebroadcast it in your garage… Even under the best of conditions, hi-def video is difficult to stream well, and I think your proposed use is pushing the limits of success. You can forget about streaming blu-ray MKVs for the most part. I have some programs that stream these to the iPads, and some mkvs work well, and some don’t. Streaming them to PCs could be problematic as well.
Personally,. I would figure out a way to run wire – there’s gotta be a good way, even if it is not an arrow-straight path. What about cable underground inside PVC plumbing pipes?  Good luck.
I was never able to successfully stream bluray rips of more than about 20 Mbps via N wifi, so gave up and ran Ethernet to both SMPs.
If you want to try wifi anyway, I would first try just adding an access point at the back of the house, but make sure it has at least one directional antenna. You might find that this will be sufficient to connect to a WD TV unit in the garage. E.g., something like this: http://www.ccrane.com/antennas/wifi-antennas/14dbi-wifi-panel-antenna.aspx#.UZKHGteKg7w
Doing this requires that you have a wifi “router” with replaceable antennas. I know DLink makes some. We have a DIR-655, for example. We have always had to use directional antennas to reach the far upstairs corner of the house. Using directional antennas with a second access point will also help keep it from interferring with your first one.
Note:Â you must pay close attention to the types of antenna connectors on your wifi unit and antenna!
My experience with directional antenna for wi-fi was: no better than the original antenna. What does matter is SIZE (as usual) meaning longer antenna. The longer the antenna the better – it’s basic RF theory. Anyway, Linksys TNC antenna couplers (the larger size). Problem was, the hummers were $50 a pair years ago. So, when Radio Shack closed a lot of their stores, I got the pair for $25 for my WRT54G router. It helped a lot. But wait, there’s more. A few years ago. I bought the wireless-only version of the unit, the Linksys Access Point, WAP54G. It came with the dinky antenna.Â
So, enter eBay. Guess what? I found new in package genuine Linksys antenna being sold for half again the price (around $12+) from sellers in Hong Kong, and ordered a pair for the AP.  They came right away, and were the genuine article. They ought to work for any TNC-connected router.
A wifi unit can put out only so much RF power. A normal “duck” antenna radiates this power into 360 degrees, while a directional antenna radiates most of it into a much more limited arc. Hence, higher signal level at target and longer range. Basic geometry.Â
For us, using directional antennas was the only way we could get wifi with at one corner of the house with access point at opposite corner. In addition, instead of 3/4 of the power being radiated out of the house toward neighbors, virtually all of the signal goes into our house.
A wifi unit can put out only so much RF power. A normal “duck” antenna radiates this power into 360 degrees, while a directional antenna radiates most of it into a much more limited arc. Hence, higher signal level at target and longer range. Basic geometry.
For us, using directional antennas was the only way we could get wifi with at one corner of the house with access point at opposite corner. In addition, instead of 3/4 of the power being radiated out of the house toward neighbors, virtually all of the signal goes into our house.
Yes, directional antenna can make a narrow beam of RF energy to increase range. A longer antenna can also improve things, and they often cost less than directional antenna. The longest antenna can be the length of the RF wave form (which can be especially long with AM radio). Antenna length is usually a ratio to the actual frequency’s length. The lowest RF signals need the longest antenna in relation to the wave form. Higher freqs use shorter antenna. Within a range, antenna of various sizes are made to boost signal output.
Yes, directional antenna can make a narrow beam of RF energy to increase range. A longer antenna can also improve things, and they often cost less than directional antenna. The longest antenna can be the length of the RF wave form (which can be especially long with AM radio). Antenna length is usually a ratio to the actual frequency’s length. The lowest RF signals need the longest antenna in relation to the wave form. Higher freqs use shorter antenna. Within a range, antenna of various sizes are made to boost signal output.
As for this comment>>> instead of 3/4 of the power being radiated out of the house toward neighbors
Not a concern, as long as the signal around my house (inside and out in the yard) is useable to me.
Being a relative cheapskate, I tried the longer duck antenna route first. Zero help to far corner of house. Since OP is trying to cover a fairly small area quite a distance from his house, I would expect he would see similar results.
Limiting the reach of my wifi signal outside my home is a security as well as performance issue. Being extremely security conscious, I would prefer not to have my wifi signal available to neighbors’ teens with too much time on their hands. While WPA2-PSK is fairly secure, discoveries such as the WPS vulnerability of 2011 only reinforce my refusal to not put 100% confidence in any one wifi security mechanism. By using directional antennas (and having a reasonable sized yard), I have limited usable wifi levels to my own yard only (and not the peripheries obviously). Anyone trying to hack my wifi would have to be sitting in my yard. Of course YMMV. Most people don’t worry about their computer security as much as I do (since security is part of my academic teaching responsibilities).
Don’t think the kids near me are that sophisticated – the 20-something next door “turned on” a new wireless router a year or so ago (his parent’s only had wired router) and when it was broadcasting, I saw it wasn’t secure and got in it with the default admin passwords and saw whose router it was (one of the connected devices was the mom’s iPad). So, when I saw them outside one day, I asked if they knew who such and such was (i,e, a user logged on) and the kid looked at me puzzled and asked me how I knew that name. So, I told him and his mom how I knew and that the network needed to be secured. They both just shrugged me off!  Kid since moved and took the router with him.
